Charlie's crib adventure last night kind of blew up in our faces. Of course, what did we expect since our child sleeps like crap anyway? We're trying again tonight, and we've got some new tricks up our sleeve.
I had a phone conversation today with my mom about crying it out (CIO). (This topic of conversation comes up all the time no matter who I'm talking with. I'm a little obsessed with sleep right now.) I told her that I'm just not ready to let him cry it out. She said, "What aren't you ready for?" And I said, "Letting him cry."
I don't know how I feel about CIO. On one hand, I think that sleep deprivation for both parents and children is a very real issue. On the other hand, I feel that a lot of people think that babies are trying to be manipulative when they wake up in the middle of the night, and honestly I just don't feel that's the case, especially when they're this young. Charlie woke up at least once an hour last night. Yes, you read that right. Once an hour. But probably more. (It's all so fuzzy now.) I have no idea why he kept waking up, because this is not something new he's been doing, and I could come up with a million possibilities. But what I do know is that when I picked him up, he fell asleep again quickly and easily. Obviously, he needs me. Or he thinks he does. I have a hard time with the concept of not being there when he needs me.
We've decided that CIO will be our last resort. When we are so tired we can barely function and/or when Charlie is so cranky we can't stand him anymore, then perhaps we'll consider letting him CIO. For now, I guess we'll just keep on truckin' and trying new things to get him to stay asleep. I keep hoping that he will just grow out of this. I'm trying to just listen to my intuition here.
Anyway, about the shower thing. I didn't take one today. I meant to, but before I knew it, it was noon, and so I said, "Fuck it." I did, however, get to make a couple of important phone calls, get some mail ready to send out, did some laundry and dishes and some random acts of cleaning. Charlie took an awesome early afternoon nap that ended up being at least two and a half hours long, so I got to close my eyes for a bit. While we keep fighting this sleep demon, at least there are some small battles that we've won.
Meanwhile, our house is a complete disaster, and I'm behind on pretty much everything. My life feels completely chaotic at all times. I have no idea how I'm ever going to finish my Master's degree because my brain feels like it's completely gone. How do people go on to have more children?
November 18, 2009
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5 comments:
Shower schmower. I sometimes take one every other day now that I am on bed rest and hardly getting out of the house. It's good for your skin! :)
Sorry about Charlie waking up so much. :( Do you think you could let him cry for 5 or 10 minutes max and see if he falls back asleep? I have no clue how I am going to handle this when the time comes...
Oh, I hear ya. I remember the particularly foggy mornings after particularly crappy nights. (We still have those on occasion, actually.)
When it was affecting my work, I knew it was time for us to give CIO a try. The sleep experts who are pro-CIO don't recommend trying it until they're at least 6 months old, FYI. I highly recommend The Sleep Easy Solution - that's what we used/use with Em. I took a class with one of the authors at the Pump Station, and I really like her approach.
Hope that helps! Hang in there, mama!
Who needs to shower every day anyways. I have been operating in a fog as well. J is not sleeping well since she is sick. I hope Charlie learns to like his crib and sleep well so you can sleep too!
Ready to bawl your eyes out? At least I did when I heard this song, and I'm not even a huge country fan.
darius rucker
it won’t be like this for long
*big hugs*
Oh, I hear ya, too.
Damn, I wish I had more time to write. I've actually been meaning to post on this very topic. (The sleeping bit. Not the not showering. Though I didn't shower today either.)
Theo still doesn't sleep through the night, and he's almost 15 months old. I'm sort of in denial that he's no longer a newborn, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to disrupt things with efforts at sleep training. Even though we did it with Phoebe when she was younger than this. And it worked well for us.
One of these I'll write about it.
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